Spied: 2014 Jaguar XE

Jag's 2-seat sports car lives!

The on-again, off-again apparently is on again and set for a 2011 debut as a show car at the Geneva Motor Show, which will also be the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the legendary E-Type at the same event.

has been toying with the idea of producing a front-engine, rear-drive 2-seater for a decade now, having shown such a concept at the 2000 North American International Auto Show called the F-Type. That in turn was inspired by a 1998 mid-engine show car called the XK180 that was presented in Paris in 1998. The switch from mid- to front-engine for the F-Type was to align it closer to the S-type sedan components upon which it was originally going to be based.

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Unlike the F-Type, the XE currently under consideration would have an all-new aluminum body and chassis with a front-engine, rear-drive layout using the technology and processes developed for the alloy-intensive . Several engine options are rumored including a supercharged V-6 producing 385 bhp, the newly introduced 510-bhp 5.0-liter supercharged V-8 used in the R-Series products and perhaps an extended-range electric.

While the concept version of the production model would be timed for the E-Type anniversary, actual production of the car isn't expected to begin until the 2013 calendar year. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group that now owns Jaguar, has publicly stated his desire to see the British automaker get back into the sports car market.